The spatial orientation difficulties of the elderly are not only due to problems of concentration or memory. Indeed, the way they analyze visual information would also be altered. This important data could make it possible to improve the places where seniors live by adapting them as best as possible.
Aging and difficulties in orientation
From a certain age, the ability to navigate, especially in unfamiliar places, is reduced. The elderly are therefore more often prone to problems related to spatial orientation.
The reasons for these difficulties have been studied and have been known for a long time. We therefore often cite as main causes: lack of attention or memory problems. However, another concern can be highlighted. This is the “aging of the visual information processing system” as underlined by theInserm.
Spatial orientation: major differences between young and old people
According to the results of a study, the decline in abilities related to the processing of visual information would have a real impact on the ability to orient oneself. To arrive at these results, researchers compared two groups. One made up of 25 people with an average age of 25. The other consisted of about twenty participants of 73 years of average age. They tested these groups in a virtual maze. After training to learn how to manage the controllers, they measured the faculties of each other to move in this environment. The objective was to find a target using the position of various objects. In parallel, the cerebral activity of the participants was recorded by functional magnetic resonance (fMRI).
And the results clearly show that the two groups function differently to analyze their environment. Thus, Stephen Ramanoël explains: “The elderly subjects appear to be slower than the young to locate the target, which was expected. Moreover, fMRI shows that the two age groups do not mobilize in the same way the different brain regions involved in the processing of visual information (in this case the objects placed in the maze) and finding the target. . »
The youngest particularly solicited the occipito-temporal regions, used in the analysis of the fine visual information of the environment. The elderly participants, for their part, solicited the upper parietal regions, and in particular according to Inserm: “an area of the occipital cortex which plays a central role in the processing of scenes”. Stephen Ramanoël specifies that: “ […]the older ones have more recourse to the geometry of the environment”. It is therefore a way of compensating for their difficulties in spatial orientation.
Thanks to this research on spatial orientation capacities, it is possible to better understand the specific needs of seniors. Thus, it may be easier to accompany them and to offer them suitable living spaces to improve their autonomy.